My poor life choices, addictions and mental health issues led to the whole of my adult life being both chaotic and unmanageable. I caused my family and friends plenty of stress, emotional and physical pain, experienced homelessness and was a burden on and a risk to society; in terms of regular offending, spending time in prison, hospitals, GP surgeries and institutions. I also caused many people, services and organisations various problems due to my behaviour and actions.
This behaviour continued until my early forties as my mental health problems were incorrectly diagnosed by the medical profession and subsequently went untreated due to their lack of understanding about addiction, its causes and how it affects people who suffer from it. I also now accept that I have to take responsibility for my behaviour, actions and the consequences, as while I was powerless over my addictions at the time, the choices I made were still mine.
In the end I referred myself to a drug and alcohol charity that specialised in treating people with addiction problems. My life was spiralling out of control again and I had hit another rock bottom, which I could not deal with on my own this time as I kind of knew I would soon end up dead if I carried on this way. Through engaging with this charity and subsequently an international fellowship that helps people recover from addiction, I began to become aware of what was actually wrong with me, how it affected me and most importantly I realised I was not unique in my suffering or alone.
I have now been in recovery for nearly one year and one day at a time am free of my addictions and the thinking and obsessions that led to them manifesting. I work a spiritual program of recovery now and through my journey I have met and engaged with some amazing people and services in the drug, alcohol and mental health sector, one of which is Fulfilling Lives. I was introduced to Fulfilling Lives and the Experts by Experience Group by Kev, who works for them as a Service Navigator. I got to know Kev through other recovery activities and seeing him out and about in Newcastle when he was working and engaging with his clients.
The Experts by Experience Group is a fantastic idea as it allows Fulfilling Lives to engage with people like myself who have experience of trying to live life with complex needs like drug and alcohol addiction, offending, housing and mental health problems. More importantly I am able to share my experiences of how I was able to turn my life around for the better, and after taking so much from others and society, it feels really good to be able to give something back by sharing my experience, strength and hope with Fulfilling Lives, so they can continue to help and support people who are still in pain and suffering because of their complex needs.
The Experts by Experience Group has also given me so much back. It’s becoming an important part of my recovery from addiction and helping with my mental health problems as I’m spending time with people who are also in recovery as well as people who work in this field, learning from them all and also learning from Fulfilling Lives about what they do and how they work with people who have complex needs and the dynamics of this. It has helped rebuild my self-esteem, which was rock bottom when I came in to recovery, my confidence is growing the more I engage and experience, and it is giving me the belief and hope that one day I will be able to find work in this sector, which I am becoming more and more passionate about.
I am also fascinated by, and interested in learning more about how the services Fulfilling Lives engage with work, how they deal with clients who have complex needs and how the blockages that Fulfilling Lives unearth and highlight are dealt with by them. From my experiences of engaging with some of these services, speaking to people with complex needs who still do, and listening to Fulfilling Lives experiences, it definitely seems like the clients wellbeing may not always be the top priority of the services, which is both alarming and a real shame, as these are very vulnerable and in a lot of cases very unwell people who are not always capable of caring for themselves. Surely these people must be treated with respect; cared for and looked after the same as anyone who is unfortunate enough to experience a physical illness or disease. Rather than being passed from pillar to post, in some cases without any effective outcomes, and in a lot of cases criminalised or made to feel excluded from society from a young age, because, due to no fault of their own they are not able to cope with living life on life’s terms.
The Experts by Experience Group has also been promoting Social Enterprises and encouraging us to come up with ideas for new ones, which we have all been actively doing and getting excited about. There are a number of potentially great ideas in the pipeline and with a bit of unity, creativity and hard work they are bound to take off and be a real success.
Thanks,
Chris.
